Suspension rack for bags and sacks, in particular refuse disposal bags for domestic purposes

ABSTRACT

In a rack particularly intended for suspending refuse disposal bags and having a circumferentially discontinuous carrier of variable size designed to retaining and stretching the top or mouth portion of the bag, said carrier comprises opposite, scissorslike holders (18,19 and 20,21) capable of distending the bag mouth both in an open position, substantially in rhomboid shape, and in a closed, assembled or collapsed position, thereby saving a cover for covering the bag between the fillings. 
     The holders are preferably mounted in a pair of brackets (2,3) having an adjustable spacing so that the rack may be used for bags and sacks of considerably varying mouth sizes.

This invention relates to a suspension rack for bags and sacks, inparticular refuse disposal bags for domestic purposes, comprising acircumferentially discontinuous carrier which is substantiallyhorizontal in the position of use and is adapted to engage an everted orfolded portion of the bag at its open end and to secure the bag bystretching or distending said portion.

The most widespread racks of this type are made from plastic coated wireforming both said carrier and a support for the bag bottom and,moreover, a pair of braces connecting said carrier and said support, thebraces comprising eyes to be used when fastening the rack, for instanceon a kitchen cupboard door. The carrier forms a substantiallyrectangular frame with a gap in the fowards facing side so as to presenta pair of somewhat yielding wings distending the bag openingapproximately into the same rectangular shape.

Filling the bag with kitchen refuse is generally done at some or manytimes and it may therefore be desired that the bag is kept closedbetween the individual fillings. For this purpose a flap cover isapplicable which may be mounted on the suspension rack or possiblydirectly on the kitchen cupboard door. However, such a cover cannot beexpected to shut tightly odourless on the suspended bag and requires,moreover, an extra manipulation when disposing a portion of refuse.

To eliminate such drawbacks a more complicated suspension rack has beendeveloped which instead of a yielding carrying frame is provided with apair of jaws with pins to engage perforations in the bag sides. Saidjaws may be moved towards and away from each other--either manually orautomatically by closing and opening the cupboard door on which the rackis mounted--and are thus able to keep the bag closed between thefillings by squeezing its mouth together. From consumer's point of viewthis rack suffers, however, from the inconvenience that it requiresspecial bags that are not alone of a given size (the same applies to thefirst mentioned rack), but which must further be provided withperforations at the mouth in order to be hooked on the jaws.

The present invention provides a suspension rack that is not onlyadapted to efficiently keep the suspended bag or sack closed between thefillings by squeezing its mouth portion together, i.e. without the useof an extra cover, but which may as well be used for bags or sacks ofvarying size and without particular suspension measures, such asperforations in the bag wall.

This has been achieved in that the said carrier comprises two opposed,scissorslike holders, the limbs of which are movable between an open,V-like position in which they distend the mouth of the bag into rhomboidshape, and an assembled position in which the mouth or top portion ofthe bag while still being stretched is kept closed by collapsing.

In this case the fastening of the bag or sack is--as for the firstmentioned rack--effected by distending or stretching its top portionwhich is a condition if said special suspension measures of the bagshall be avoided, but while maintaining the stretching effect the saidholders can further open and close the bag, thereby saving an extracover.

To ensure an efficient fastening of the bag or sack it is according tothe invention preferred that the two holders are displaceable towardsand away from each other and spring-biased in the last mentioneddirection to ensure the stretching of the top portion of the bag.

The fact that the carrier is constituted by two holders entails theparticular advantage that one and the same rack may be used for bags orsacks within a great variety of sizes, namely by providing the twoholders in a respective one of two brackets mounted on a common base,said brackets being spaded adjustably apart. If the rack is associatedwith a support for the bottom of the bag or the sack, such supportshould also be adjustable according to the size of the bag, inparticular to its height.

Further details of the suspension rack according to the invention willappear from the following description of a preferred embodiment withreference to the accompanying drawing, in which

FIG. 1 illustrates the embodiment in a perspective view, and

FIG. 2 the left part of the rack in FIG. 1, seen from above andsubstantially in section.

The illustrated rack is designed so that bags for kitchen refuse can besuspended thereon and it comprises a mounting plate 1 to be fastenedwith screws on a vertical surface, for instance on the inside of acupboard door. The plate carries two brackets 2 and 3, at least one ofwhich being preferably adjustable along the plate as indicated by thedouble-arrows 4 so as to adjust the distance between the said twobrackets according to the size of the bag to be suspended. The twobrackets may be alike as to structure, but symmetrically designed, andtheir details appear from FIG. 2.

It will be seen that the bracket comprises a box-shaped housing 5accommodating a supporting arm or lever 6, appropriately made fromspring steel, provided with a bushing 7 at its one end while its otherend engages a slit in the rear wall 8 of the housing, said rear wallbeing secured to the mounting plate 1 in a manner not shown. From theposition illustrated in FIG. 2 the arm or lever 6 can be pivotedsomewhat to the left by rotating a spindle 9 by a handle 10. Saidspindle 9 is accommodated in the side walls of the housing 5 andretained against axial displacement by means of a pair of stop rings 11.Within the housing the spindle carries a cam 12 which is fixed to thespindle so as to rotate therewith and presents a cylindrically archedabutting surface 13 for a loose cam 14 provided with a projection 15having a non-circular cross-section and extending through an oblong hole16 in the supporting arm or lever 6, thereby preventing the loose camfrom rotating about the axis of the spindle 9. A pressure spring 17urges the lever rod against the loose cam 14, which is thereby at thesame time urged against the cam 12. A rotational movement of the spindle9 and thus also of the cam 12 consequently results in a displacement tothe left of the cam 14 bringing along the lever 6 by pivoting it aboutthe bearing point at the rear wall 8 of the housing. The lever maysimultaneously be displaced a little at the bearing point so as to allowthe bushing 7 of the lever when swinging to follow a straight lineinstead of a circular arc. The abutting surface 13 between said two cams12 and 14 need of course not be cylindrically arched as it may as wellbe roof-shaped or plane and form an angle different from 90° with theaxis of the spindle 9.

Either of the brackets 2 and 3 accommodates a holder consisting of twopieces of bar material forming altogether a pair of tongs or scissorswith two limbs 18 and 19, 20 and 21, respectively. The two associatelimbs are integral with a respective one of two vertical bar sections18a, 19a which extend downwardly through a guide slit 22, FIG. 1, in theupper wall of bracket housing 5 and are journalled in laterally abuttingrelationship in the aforementioned bushing 7, beneath which saidsections continue into control levers 18b and 19b pointing towards theends of the bracket housing 5 and resting on its bottom. With theirangularly bent ends 18c and 19c the control levers 18b and 19b engageinclined guide slots 23 and 24 at the bottom of the housing so that thecontrol levers convert the displacement of the bushing 7, referred toabove, into a rotation of the bar pieces, thereby swinging the limbs 18and 19, 20 and 21, respectively, from the open position as shown in FIG.1, towards each other to the assembled or collapsed position shown indotted lines in FIG. 2.

The holders 18, 19 and 20,21 of the rack being in the V-like positionshown in FIG. 1, a bag can be suspended in the same way as is the casewith ordinary racks with a frame-shaped carrier, the top edge of the bagbeing everted or folded over the limbs 18-21, following which the top ofthe bag is kept stretched and distended approximately in rhomboid shape.After a portion of refuse has been filled into the bag, the handle 10and thus also the spindle 9 common to the two brackets 2 and 3, arerotated through an angle of less than 90°, so that the two scissors- ortonglike holders 18,19 and 20,21 are folded up and displaced asexplained above, thereby closing the mouth of the bag. The edge portionof the bag shall then remain in a stretched position which according tothe illustrated embodiment is ensured by moving the ends of the fourlimbs 18-21 pependicularly to the connecting line between the verticesof the two holders, as indicated by the arrow 25 in FIG. 2. This impliesthat the length of the guide slits 22 in the bracket housings at leastcorresponds to the longitudinal difference between a holder limb and itsprojection on said connecting line.

The said rotation of the spindle 9 may be effected manually, but in casethe rack is mounted on a cupboard door the rotation may as well beeffected automatically when opening and closing the door, the handle 10being then adapted to engage and disengage an operating member designedand mounted in an appropriate manner. Particularly when an isolated ordetached rack for bigger bags or sacks is concerned, the handle may beconnected with a pedal.

FIG. 1 illustrates parts of a pair of vertical rack braces 26 supportinga support, not shown, for the bag bottom. As mentioned above such abottom support may as well be adjustable according to the size of thebag.

I claim:
 1. A suspension rack for bags and sacks, comprising:a basemember secured to a support structure, a pair of brackets projectingfrom said base member, and a discontinuous frame-like collapsible bagcarrier mounted on said brackets and adapted to engage andcircumferentially stretch an everted portion of a bag at the open endthereof, said bag carrier including a pair of holders, each said holdermounted in a respective bracket, and formed by a pair of frame limbswhich are movable between a closed parallel position and an open V-likeposition, the vertices of the holders pointing away from each other, atleast one of said holders being displaceable in its bracketsubstantially parallel to said base member and being resiliently biasedin a direction away from the other holder to permanently keep saideverted bag portion circumferentially stretched.
 2. A suspension rack asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the spacing of said brackets on said basemember is adjustable.
 3. A suspension rack as claimed in claim 1,wherein the frame limbs of each holder are integral with the upper endsof respective substantially vertical bar sections journalled in a commonbushing mounted for lateral displacement in the associated bracket, saidbar sections at their lower ends being integral with respective controllevers extending substantially horizontally and transversely to thedirection of displacement of said bushing, the other end of each of saidcontrol levers being pivotally engaged in a guide slot in said bracketso as to coordinate a displacement of said bushing with a swinging ofthe frame limbs between their open and closed positions.
 4. A suspensionrack as claimed in claim 3, wherein said bushing is carried by one endof a substantially horizontal arm which at its other end has a fulcrumin the bracket and between its ends is engaged by a mechanism operableto swing the arm about said fulcrum.
 5. A suspension rack as claimed inclaim 4, wherein said arm is adapted to resiliently bias said bushing ina direction away from the other holder of the rack.
 6. A suspension rackas claimed in claim 4, wherein said mechanism comprises a spindlejournalled in both of the brackets for reciprocal rotation through anangle of approximately 90° and provided with at least one arm-engagingcam.